TIOBE: Java Is Still the Top Programming Language

Android plays a big role in the language's continuing popularity.

TIOBE has released its list of the world's most popular programming languages for August 2013. Once again, Java took the top spot, just edging out C (which was number one in August 2012).

"One word should capture what is going on with Java: Android," said IDC analyst Al Hilwa. "In recent years, Java has been the biggest language showing up in our surveys. In business and in the enterprise, it is unchallenged, especially for back-end applications. It may be less popular in terms of new adoption as a browser plugin, but that is more than compensated for in Android development."

Gartner's Mark Driver added, "Java is incredibly entrenched technology, which is backed by some of the world's largest and most influential software companies, including IBM and Oracle. These are companies that still have a strong influence and control over mission-critical, transaction-oriented applications. And a lot of the growth in dynamic languages tends to be coming from people working on architecturally simple systems. You don't see a lot of people out there building airline reservation systems in Python—they'll use it as part of that system, but the back end is still Java."